Eight badminton players were today thrown out of London 2012 after their attempts to massage placings outraged paying spectators and dragged the sport's Olympic tournament into dark farce.

More than 12 hours after two Korean women's pairs, the Chinese
top seeds and an Indonesian pair were booed off the courts at
Wembley Arena as they tried to throw two matches on Tuesday night,
the sport's governing body annnounced their disqualification after
a lengthy disciplinary meeting of its top officials.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) faced sharp criticism
itself after its introduced a new "round robin" or group stage
format for the Olympics and then appeared paralysed by indecision
when a referee disqualified participants in one of the matches only
to then revoke the decision.

Amid disgust and dismay from paying spectators, London 2012 Lord
Coe organiser described the lack of effort by the players as
"depressing" and "unacceptable".

After finding its sport at the top of the Olympic headlines for
all the wrong reasons, the BWF issued a terse statement this
morning announcing that the four South Koreans, two Chinese and two
Indonesians had been ordered out of Olympics for infringing two
rules: "Not using one's best efforts to win a match and conducting
oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the
sport."

The controversy had begun to unfold late on Tuesday evening when
the Chinese top seeds in the women's doubles, Yu Yang and Wang
Xiaoli, and South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na began their
match with both pairs having already qualified for today's quarter
final.

Lori Halford, 35, who had paid £40 along with her husband for
tickets to the evening session, told The Independent: "It was
immediately clear that something wasn't right. The first shot went
into the net, then the next shot went into the net. The next return
went under the net. There was no speed or strength to their
play.

"There was a complete contrast to the others playing in
different games who were giving it everything they could. At first
we thought the players had seriously choked but then it started to
go out on Twitter and we realised what was really going on. It was
just really distasteful."

The attempt to throw the two matches in the women's doubles had
it roots in a surprise result earlier in the day when the Chinese
second seeds, Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, were beaten by a Danish
pair. The result meant that Yang and Xiaoli had to lose to avoid
meeting their compatriots before a potential showdown in the
final.

A similar desire to avoid the hot favourites seemed to have
cross-infected the second match, between South Korean third
seeds Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung and Indonesian pair Meiliana
Juahari and Greysia Polii. Amid jeers and shouts of "get off" from
the crowd, referee Thorsten Berg at one point produced a "black
card" meaning disqualification. The sanction, which according to
official London 2012 guidance is "very rare", was then withdrawn
after representations from coaches.

Sung Han-Kook, head coach of the South Korean team, which had an
appeal against disqualification rejected, appeared to admit that
his players had tried to throw their matches. He said: "The Chinese
started this. They did it first. It's a complicated thing with the
draws. They didn't want to meet each other in the semi-final. So we
did the same."

The Chinese, who have bridled at speculation about the
performance of swimmer Ye Shiwen, took a robust stance on their
players, who had complained they were trying to conserve strength
for the knockout tournament. China has been previously accused of
using team tactics to avoid clashes between its top players.
Xinhua, the state news agency, reported a separate investigation by
Chinese officials and described the behaviour of the two women
as "seriously violating the Olympic spirit".

The BWF meanwhile faced claims that it had been warned the
introduction of the round robin format - an innovation for London
2012 - would lead to attempts at match fixing. Writing in The
Independent, Gail Emms, an Olympic silver medallist, said the
sporting body had cast aside warnings on Tuesday about the two
matches.